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TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

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Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#31

Post by viraptor »

vidoc wrote: post #11

In a way, it's not the TSA's fault, it's ours for tolerating this insanity. Sometimes I almost wish someone smuggles a bomb through the TSA security line, and successfully storms a plane so we can finally have concrete evidence that those processes only provide annoyance , not security . The most successful terrorist of all times was Richard Reid, the dude who tried to embark in a plane with explosive material in his…

Last year they were at 95% failure rate (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/investigation-breaches-u...) I think we already know they don't stop anything apart from phones accidentally left in pockets.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#32

Post by joelrunyon »

codecamper wrote: post #16

TSA should keep a link between face & scanned ticket. They should have been able to easily contact that gate & stop the "gift" receiver from boarding their plane. If there is no connection between face & scanned ticket, then this is a pretty serious gap of the TSA security system. Without it, how can they look at recorded video & make connections to certain passengers?

I'm sure they have one. But they're probably not using it to find lost laptops.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#33

Post by tfm »

blowski wrote: post #26

I don't really understand the importance of this story. Sure it's annoying and a huge inconvenience for the OP and I'm genuinely sorry for him. But it's a lost laptop. How often does this happen? Can you think of a way of changing the process that would result in a net benefit for everyone? If this story was "TSA gave away my diamond necklace" or "Nightclub cloakroom hands bag to wrong customer" we would recognise th…

At CDG airport a few weeks ago we encountered a straightforward process I'd not seen before – items going through the screening are associated with your boarding pass. It had no significant effect on the speed of the procedure, and it provides accountability for objects. I don't fully understand why it's not standard practice.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#34

Post by yoo1I »

gchadwick wrote: post #24

Whilst the TSA agents should be taking more care to ensure valuables are returned to the correct person, there are several agents working on a single line. The person who saw him place the computer into the x-ray would be different from the person handing items back so it's not all that surprising that didn't know who it belonged to and was just assuming people were being honest. Any frequent flyer will know return o…

If the government decides they need to take my stuff away from me to check it, they better make sure that I get it back correctly. In this case the TSA handed the laptop to someone other than the owner.

If this happens, clearly the process has a defect, and needs to be corrected, or, even better in this case, abandoned completely.

Don't blame the victim.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#35

Post by DavidSJ »

mjlee wrote: post #20

Interestingly (to me) the author used the phrase "on accident". I googled it and found this: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/215/is-it-correct... As a British English speaker, this stopped me in my tracks. I'm wondering if it had the same effect on the American English readers of this article.

It's not proper American English either but it's becoming increasingly common.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#37

Post by yoo1I »

elkabong wrote: post #30

I'm surprised that everyone is focusing on the TSA for giving his computer away (awful), but to me, the even more objectionable thing is that THE WOMAN TOOK A RANDOM COMPUTER and just left with it. Any reasonable person would say "that is not mine", or am I being too naive? And, since she didn't do that, there was clearly malice involved, so the police were also clearly in the wrong, saying that it was an accident an…

Clearly that was wrong of her, and should not be diminished. The difference is that I would not be surprised that any random person I meet anywhere turns of out to be a thief, but I, and I expect lots of other people, hold government employees to a much higher standard. Especially, as you note, if they then just call the whole thing an accident.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#38

Post by PeterStuer »

yoo1I wrote: post #29
captainmuon wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't wish for anything like that to happen, but sometimes I wonder what if a terrorist would just detonate a bomb before the security lines, between the waiting people... didn't something similar happen in Belgium? It's great that we reduced the risk of a highjacking so much in the last decades, with security checkpoints and hardened cockpit doors. But in sum, I don't really feel safer while flying.

That's exactly what happened in Brussels. "And besides, if we made airplanes completely safe, the terrorists would simply start bombing other places that are crowded. Porn shops, crack houses, titty bars, and gangbangs. You know, entertainment venues." George Carlin, 1999

Exactly what happened in Brussels. There the bombs were detonated in the check in departures hall before the security area. What happened afterwards is even more absurd. They organized a security check before entering the departures hall, leading to massive 3 hour waiting lines outside the building. Clearly protecting the building is far more important than the security of the people in the waiting line.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#39

Post by gambiting »

nikanj wrote: post #23
mindcrime wrote: post #18

Man, I am going to be paranoid as f%!# from now on, when going through security. If my laptop disappeared, it would screw me over pretty good. I mean, not in the sense that I'd lose anything that is literally irreplaceable, (well, not irreplaceable AND particularly valuable) but it would be a huge time and energy sink to recover from that. Last time I lost a laptop, was when somebody stole my laptop bag out of my tru…

Crashplan. $99 per year.

It's actually just $59/year. Seems totally worth it to me.

Re: TSA gave my MacBook Pro to another passenger at LAX, and now it's gone

#40

Post by plinkplonk »

How this works in India.

When you put your laptop in a bin, the security person puts one of two identical tags (pieces of plastic with identical numbers on them) into the bin, on top of your computer and gives you the other one.

When you finish your patdown/metal detector etc screening and want to take your computer back, you give the security person at the other end of the line your tag, she looks around for the bin with the identical tag, and hands you the contents of the bin and takes your tag back.

Not foolproof/fraudproof, but it seems to work in practice.

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